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| Flower seeds from Pinetree |
Much to my surprise though, I received a Pinetree Garden Seeds & Accessories catalogue last week! That's the earliest ever.
I've heard about Pinetree for years. It's a well respected family owned business in Maine, begun about 30 years ago. Their focus is the home gardener and their seeds are very reasonably priced.
I was taken with the variety of flower seeds, especially perennial seeds. For example, I've never seen Edelweiss seeds for sale before. Edelweiss is the national flower of Austria. You might remember it from the song Herr Von Trapp sings at the music festival in The Sound of Music movie.
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| Marshmallow |
I'm also taken with their herb selection and how they group them together by their purpose. There is a great selection of medicinal herbs. Here at last is Marshmallow seeds and Elecampane, two of the plants I've been trying to find for Glendower's medicinal herb garden.
Marshmallow is used for stomach and urinary tract problems. It also soothes skin aliments.
Elecampane's roots are used as an expectorant and it also has antibacterial and anti fungal properties. It grows to be eight feet tall.
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| Woad |
Pine tree also has a section of herbs for dyeing. I've always wanted to grow Woad for the color blue. Remember in Braveheart the Scots painted their faces in blue to intimidate the enemy. That blue paint was made from Woad.
I can find plenty of dye plants producing yellows, greens and browns growing wild on the farm, but blue, red and lavender are pretty much impossible. Woad has long been a staple for blue. Pinetree offers Black Hollyhock for lavender and mauve and Bulls Blood Beet for red. I've not seen either the Hollyhock or the beet discussed in my dye books, so I'll be anxious to try these two plants and see if they work with just an alum mordant.
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